Yawn…. stretch… Yawn some more. Clyde here! Holy cow.. I’ve been hibernating all winter! Usually Mom (Emily) writes the blog, but I’ve been sitting out in the snow and rain all winter, and Mom’s busy. So, I thought I’d take over for a bit.

It’s been kinda lonely, down here in my corner of the yard. I’ve had some pretty birds to watch, and sometimes the neighbor’s cat comes by and hangs out inside for a bit. He likes to walk across my axles and try to jump at the couple of bits of wiring I have dangling. We talk, but you know… cats aren’t really all that into campers, and he wasn’t even alive in the 1970’s, so we don’t have much in common.

BUT… I have a feeling it’s going to warm up soon. Dad (Chad) was down here a couple of days ago, and he had the measuring tape out. That always means exciting times are coming! He has some pretty metal all ready to lay down as my brand new floor. He’s going to top that off with some wood, and I’ll be solid and ready for my interior!

What’s my interior going to look like? SPIFFY! That’s what! For my guts, I get Pex plumbing to a single faucet. I get romex wiring, like houses get. I’m not going to be battery capable, simply because Mom says the devil will ice skate before she camps off the grid. She’s kinda girly and a little spoiled. Don’t tell her I said that. She’ll retaliate by putting pink cushions on my couch!

The guts stuff won’t take very long at all, ’cause Dad was an electrician guy for a long time. So, once that’s ran, and the brake lights/marker lights and such are ran (he’s a car guy, too, so this stuff’s gonna be fast), then it’s gonna get super exciting. Why? ‘Cause I get…

PANELING!!! Do you even know how awesome paneling is? I mean, I know some people like that wallboard stuff, but honestly… paneling is where it’s at! I am a 1970’s camper. I am all about the paneling! Oh, that and Disco Balls!!! But, Dad said No the the disco ball. He says he has to keep an eye on Mom or I’m gonna be tacky. We’re not telling him about the boxes of 1970’s decor Mom has. Mom says that’s our little secret. Apparently, I am going to have owls. Lots of them. She’s a little obsessed.

Anyway, back to the wonderful word of paneling. There are so many kinds.

You can have some that has pictures of deer.

Oh, Deer!

Some that looks like wood.

Distressed, even!

Some that looks like dry-erase board.

(I was going to put in a picture, but um… it’s just white. Use your imagination!)

Some that you can hang tools on (it’s called Peg Board. Mom said no).

pegboard aka manly paneling

It’s AWESOME STUFF! And, being true to my 1974 self, it’s what I’m very excited about. We’re still deciding if we want all white bead board (big on bottom, little on top) or White on bottom with honey colored wood on top. Dad says if it’s all white, I’ll look like the inside of a refrigerator. I think Mom is starting to agree. I don’t care. I just want PANELING!

Now, I just have to talk them into shag carpet. That is NOT going to be easy.

Note from Clyde’s Mom: While helping Clyde find paneling pictures I discovered that paneling has a high end world. I had no idea. If you want to have your mind blown by what some places consider paneling, check this out:

OK, currently NOTHING on Clyde is pretty and I totally know that. But, as we all know… I gots plans. I gots ambition. And, more than anything else, I got tchotchkes! So, in my head, Clyde is already decorated and gorgeous inside. But, considering what he looks like right now, he reminds me of that Blind Date Kiss-of-Death intro… he’s got a great personality! He’s so beautiful inside!

Now, to help you visualize (and to keep me from losing track of what I have for him), I had a little photo session in my Clyde Storage Area or CSA (okay, it’s a shelf with a couple of storage boxes in the basement, but doesn’t it sound like a Warehouse with awesome crates in it when I call the CSA). It consisted of beautifully posed shots on a gorgeous backdrop*. Here are the results and some descriptions.

*actually, me sitting in the freezing cold basement floor with an old sheet behind the items, waiting on the laundry to finish so I could swap it out and go back upstairs

As a side note, before I begin, I want to note that this is the first time I’ve used WordPress for a blog. I need to learn some more about it, because right now… the pictures are driving me NUTS. I absolutely HATE the way it has you insert pictures and edit them. It has 3 different areas to title and tag and sometimes my best oneliners wind up showing up only if you hover over the pictures. So, bear with me, and if you want to get a little humor, go thru this and the old posts and hover over the pictures for some giggles. Now, on the way:

Owl Fetish

Yes, the owl fetish continues. Clyde will be true to his 1970’s roots and rock out with the owl theme and appropriate color scheme. Here are just a couple of examples. Believe it or not, none of these were purchased by me! They were all gifts to Clyde from my friends. Thank you Katie, Beverly, Heather and Holly! He’s quite popular with the ladies!

Dinner with the Groove-sters

Only the hippest of hip for our Clyde! He will be rocking out with Walmart’s Finest Summer Clearance from Summer 2011. The entire ensemble wound up costing me $4. To keep him as enviro-friendly as possible, I’m really going to try to use as much non-disposable stuff as I can. These plates and such are so cheap and so thin that they probably weigh less than paper plates anyway!

Kitchen Bits

Yes, I know they’re mostly red. I also know that they came from the Dollar Tree, therefore fit my budget. They’ll hide in the cabinets when company comes, so no one has to know. But, the little basket-y thing will fit in the color scheme and is someday going to hold silverware. When we get some.

Electricaly-Welectricaly Things

On the right, we have the things that wire Clyde up to the Jeep to tow. Don’t ask me how they work. I may be an electrician’s kid and the wife of a former electrician. I may be able to pull wire and install outlets. I still don’t understand how any of it works. I chalk it up to Electrical Magic brought about by Magical Electrical fairies. Price on these $0. Gift from my Dad!

To the left, we have my favorite part of camping as a kid. The awning lights! I used to LOVE picking those out. And, naturally, the tackier they were, the happier I was. I found ice cream cones, owls with sparkly eyes and tons of cool ones. Alas, the groovy, blown-plastic atrocities of my childhood are nowhere to be found, or if found, are a bajillion dollars on eBay. Still, I found a close second in cool-factor. Mini Coleman lanterns. They were $20 at the Coleman outlet and so darn cute I paid full price.

Pots ‘n’ Pans

OK, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but ya gotta cook on something. I couldn’t use high quality cookware because:

a. it is expensive

b. it is heavy

c. did I mention it’s expensive?

So, we got the Walmart box set! It has pretty much everything you need to fix basic meals, which is about all we’ll do in a camper. And, despite being priced $39.99, I caught it on sale on Black Friday 2010 for $9.99. BARGAIN! And, since everyone was busy fighting over the cheap TVs and X-Boxes, no one cared that I got one, so I didn’t have to risk my life. Score!

Linens

Aren’t they cute? Aren’t they perfect? Aren’t they the wrong freakin’ size??? And, naturally, the band around them has torn off in storage, so I doubt they will take them back. I’m going to try this weekend. But, if they don’t, I’ll just keep them and make curtains or something out of them. Good news is, I got them on clearance at Target for $7 last year.

The bedspread in it's it's fringey chenilley goodness!

Check out the fringe!

And, the piece most recently added to the collection (so new it missed the photo shoot, these are the pics from the seller) is my pride and joy. $16.49 on eBay (with free shipping). It’s my vintage, yellow, chenille bedspread!!! Isn’t it groovy??? It’s also the wrong size. BUT, I’m going to make this into a positive. I’m going to have someone who knows how to sew (I’m looking at you, Paula, Khara and Mom) to cut the excess off and make it into pillows to surround the bed. That way, the bed can double as a second seating area (couch) and be all matchy-cute. Since the bedspread is 103″ and a twin mattress is only 39″, we should have plenty to work with!

A board with glass knobs! Awesome!

Yeah, that’s exactly what it is! My mom used it as a coat hanger for a while in the cabin and got sick of it. I doubt we’ll have room to hang coats, so the plan is to use the knobs on the various cabinet doors. Free is always doable!

Hot Stuff!

Literally! HOT! This is the “stove.” Since counter space will be at a premium, and an actual stove costs a lot of money, we are going with a hotplate set. I was discussing this at work, and lo and behold… my friend Bev had one (a much nicer one than the piece of junk we were going to buy for $20) and just gave it to me! FREE!!!!

I saw the Light…

I saw the light, I saw the light...

OK, I think out of all of my great purchases for little Clyde, this one has to be the most impressive bargain-wise. I fell in love with these lights. We have NO overhead room (even for shorties like me and Chad, there is only a couple of feet above our head) and besides that, messing with the roof/ceiling to install a light is just asking for trouble, since the roof is pretty much the only thing that does NOT currently leak and doesn’t appear to have done so in the past. So, we decided to put a small light in each corner over the sleeping/sitting/dining areas. It needed to be small, because so is Clyde. I loved these at first sight. They were on clearance for $20 each. I knew much cheaper fixtures would work just as well, so I decided to hold off and see if they’d drop. I went back about a week later and they were down to $10 each. I was so happy. I also forgot my stupid debit card at home and had about $2 in cash. I worried myself to pieces that they’d sell before I could get back. Not only did they not sell, there were 4 (exactly what I needed) left when I got back… and they’d been cut down again in price. To $5 each!!!! So, $20 was much easier to swallow than $80 AND they even come with the light bulbs! YAY, ME!!!

We may add some strip lighting under the cabinets and under the shelf over the dinette area, but we’re going to wait and see how bright these little guys are first. If they aren’t quite enough, small fluorescent lights will be super-easy to install and are crazy-cheap.

Incredibly Advanced and Expensive Music System

OK, it was free, it came in the camper. And, it works. CD/Radio and very importantly, weather band (after we ran into tornadoes in Oklahoma one year and had no idea until we SAW THEM, a weather radio is high on my list of priorities for travel). Sadly, no input area for me to plug in the iPod and my white-noise app that makes me sleep like a baby. Soo..

Yup, pink speakers for my pink iPod! I actually bought these ages ago to use as speaker in my office. I didn’t read the fine-print (shocker) and didn’t realize they wouldn’t do crap as computer speakers. As an iPod speaker, though, they’re pretty good! And, they add such an air of masculinity to the joint. Yeah, Chad won’t even use cover on the iPod it is so girly. I’m sure he will be thrilled to see the speakers. Speaker cost $8.

There are other things (some super-cool towels with cute colored trim that even has a built in hanger-upper and a black microwave) that were tucked too far back to drag out. And, besides, my laundry was done, so the photo session was over.

Well, I haven’t posted since September, but it’s a New Year, and I really must get caught up. Let me get you up to date:

Clyde is still just a shell of himself.No, really, he’s pretty much just a shell. The only things remaining in Clyde are a small “bunk” like couch up front (just the frame of it) and a narrow shelf above it. Everything else, including the flooring and the majority of the paneling, are gone. One of the windows is out and covered with a trash bag. The back right corner is stripped down to the bare metal and is about to become the first thing we “fix” on Clyde.

So, that is how we started our day today. We had plans to work yesterday, when it was 70+degrees and sunny out, but Chad got called into work on an emergency, so that got shot in the head. So, we went in today. When it was in the 50’s and rainy. Yeah, we always have GREAT timing that way.

So, we plug in our little heater (with multiple gaping holes in the exterior, we were merely hoping to knock off the chill, but it did pretty well), and break out some power tools and got a start on rebuilding the corner.

Notice how all the junk gets crammed to the "couch" up front.

So, with that out of the way, we frame in the window. This one window had to come out (and we are hoping the rest won’t), simply because the rot was sooooo bad around it, that we had to completely strip all the wood from around it. No framing+gravity=window fall down. So, we took it out and re-did all the framing. Then… realized we did it wrong. Unscrewed it and replaced it correctly. We didn’t account for the fact that the window has a little trim around it. We had to snug the frame up under the trim. So, even though we wasted about 45 minutes doing it wrong then fixing it, it wasn’t too huge a disaster. We also cleaned out buckets of trash and debris from the destruction-days past. Then, we measured out some things and made some plans. We did not get much done today, due to the monsoon that broke loose, but we finally BUILT something instead of just tearing out! So, from a hole in the wall covered with a trash-bag to this:

Progress, at long last!!!!

I also managed to get one other thing done. Clyde has a little compartment in the back, that you can access from outside. Eventually, this will be under the bed, and will reach into a storage area. Somewhere thru the years, all the keys to Clyde have gotten lost. So, we needed to find a key to the compartment. I managed to get the lock apart today and while wandering at Lowe’s (aka, the Clyde store), I found a replacement! They are called “mailbox locks” in the hardware store and cost $3.58. In camping stores, they are called “compartment locks” and run about $8. Go Lowe’s!!!

Compartment door LOCKED

Compartment Door Without the Lock!

We’ve still got a LOT of demolition to go, but right now it feels really good to get something done. To build something, instead of just destroying. It makes it feel like we are eventually going to get poor little Clyde back to new and get him out on the road and enjoy him!

So far, most everything has been about Clyde’s “bones” and nothing about what he’ll look like later. We are definitely going to stick with his 1970’s roots. And what says 1970 better than owls?? NOTHING! That’s what! So, we’re going to have a lot of avocado green, harvest gold, burnt orange and owls and mushrooms and maybe a lava lamp! We’ve bought a TON of stuff for the inside (light fixtures, a microwave, linens, etc), but I’ve not taken pics. So, here’s a sneak preview of what is to come. Some day soon, I’ll try to do a post of all the bits ‘n’ pieces we’ve acquired thus far.

Owl Be Seeing You In All The Old Familiar Places...

The pillow is one of a set (they look exactly alike) and the plan is to have them chillin’ on one of the beds. The little ceramic owls are salt and pepper shakers! VERY groovy! These are actually new items, from Pier One. My friend Katie got me the stuffed owl after I tried to steal hers. Then, after Christmas, I found another one, and bought it myself. The S&P set were on clearance for $5. So, that was quite the steal.

Next time I blog, I’ll tell you about how some of the items I have bought are already going to have to be repurposed (sheets the wrong size, etc) and hopefully have pictures of some of our interior items. Thanks for putting up with my rambling and with the loooong lulls between posts!

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